TV Hebdo

TV Hebdo is a French language TV listings magazine similar to TV Guide. TV Hebdo is the longest running stand-alone TV Listings publication in Canada; in publication since 1962. This magazine is still in publican today and is owned by Québecor Média.

TV Hebdo Early Years

TV Hebdo began publication in 1962 and is still in publication today. TV Hebdo's format is similar to the English language TV listings publication; TV Guide. Like TV Guide in its early years, TV Hebdo featured TV listings for local stations. Cable only channels were not listed in TV Hebdo as up until 1983, cable only stations consisted of public access channels, government access channels and text only channels

English language local channels were also listed though all program descriptions were in French.

Pay-TV & Specialty Channels

Starting in 1983, TV Hebdo began listing pay-tv channels. In 1983 there were two French language pay-tv channels; Premier Choix (later became Super Écran) and TVEC (Merged with Premier Choix in spring 1984). English language channels; First Choice and C Channel were also available on select cable systems in Québec although it is not known if the English language pay-tv channels were listed.

TV Hebdo listed both French and English language specialty channels such as RDS, MusiquePlus, TVFQ (Later TV5), TSN and MuchMusic. Up until the early 1990s some French and English specialty channels such as YTV, Le Canal Famille and CBC Newsword were not listed in TV Hebdo.

Although channels such as CNN, The Nashville Network and A&E were available on select cable systems in Quebec since the early/mid 1980s, American specialty channels were not listed in TV Hebdo until 1995.

As with English language locals, English specialty channel program descriptions were in French.

Editions

There were multiple editions of TV Hebdo. Up until approx. 1993 TV Hebdo featured local and specialty channel listings for Montreal, Trois-Rivieres and Sherbrooke in one single edition. It is not known if other Quebec markets such as Hull, Quebec, Riviere-du-loup, Saugany and Gaspe had their own editions. Starting in approx 1993 one single edition; edition nationale replaced the Metro Edition (Edition Metropolitan) for Montreal and possibly other regional editions. Initially only Montreal, Sherbrooke, Trois-Rivieres and Quebec stations were listed however by 1995 most stations in Quebec and Eastern Ontario were listed.

Starting by September 1992; TV Hebdo began printing a cable edition (Edition Metro Cable). Initially this edition only featured Videotron Montreal specific listings. Starting in 1995 this edition began to list both Videotron Montreal and CF Cable Montreal. Videotron Cable was identified with black numeric bullets while CF Cable was identified with white numeric bullets.

Merger with TV 7 Jours

Starting in 1996 TV Hebdo and TV 7 Jours were merged into one editorial publication due to common ownership. TV Hebdo continued to be available as a stand-alone purchase while TV 7 Jours continued to be available as a free add-on to the 7 Jours magazine subscription. Editorial content and program listings in both magazines were identical, the only difference being the logo on the front cover.